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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28264875">Like Christmas Lights (Oh, What A Sight)</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/JacknessofHearts/pseuds/JacknessofHearts'>JacknessofHearts</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Naruto</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Christmas Fluff, Christmas market, First Kiss, M/M</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 01:42:33</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,768</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28264875</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/JacknessofHearts/pseuds/JacknessofHearts</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>“Surprise me,” Gaara says.</p><p>Impossibly, the vendor's smile seems to grow.</p><p>“You are my favourite customer today!” he exclaims, reaching under the counter and pulling out a ceramic mug.</p><p>Gaara can feel himself smile back, the uptick of his mouth a strange feeling after hours of constant frowning.</p><p>“Stop flirting, Lee,” a voice calls from inside the stall.</p><p>*</p><p> After a terrible meeting, Gaara spends his break on a christmas market and with the cute guy selling mulled wine.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Gaara/Rock Lee</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>118</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Naruto/Boruto Secret Santa 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Like Christmas Lights (Oh, What A Sight)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/a_gay_poster/gifts">a_gay_poster</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Dear ghoste-catte,<br/>I had so much fun writing this! I miss christmas markets the most this year, so this was born out of my desire for mulled wine and flame-grilled salmon. I really hope you like it, it was a true joy to be your secret santa!<br/>Merry Christmas!</p><p> </p><p>*</p><p>Title from Ho Ho Hopefully by The Maine</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It's already dark out when Gaara's finally getting a break from his meeting. He can feel the beginnings of a migraine, a gentle throbbing behind his temples as he steps out into the street in front of the office building they'd been arguing in for more than six hours. He'd pushed through his lunch break, determined to get it over with as soon as possible but they're still only marginally closer to agreeing on the terms of the contract.</p><p>“Get some air,” Kankuro'd said when Gaara had been reluctant to even step out of the conference room, ready to simply wolf down some stale sandwiches while going over his notes for the tenth time.</p><p>“There's a christmas market round the corner,” Temari had agreed and pushed him out of the door. “Eat something! Look at the pretty lights! None of their opinions will change in the time it takes for you to drink some hot chocolate.”</p><p>They're probably right, both of them. The moment he steps outside, cold air filling his lungs and pushing the scent of too strong coffee and printer paper out of his nose, his head feels lighter already.</p><p>He's never been in this city before, has no idea where to find anything good to eat and he's in no rush to go looking, so he takes Temari's advice and walks around the building. A small plaza opens up before him, surrounded by art deco buildings with lights in their windows, glittering in the dark. One of the canals that seem to criss-cross all over the city forms a border at the west end of the square, a small bridge leading off into another part of town.</p><p>Nestled between the canal and the houses are a few wooden huts, decorated in red and gold and green, lines of sparkling christmas lights stretched between them. Gaara's seen the big christmas market in the city center the day before when his siblings had forced him to leave his hotel room instead of perfecting his presentation, but this one is different. It's just close enough to a district of office buildings to not be deserted but far enough from the usual tourist traps to feel almost empty compared to the throngs of people pushing at each other at the christmas market he's been at before.</p><p>It's surprisingly quiet.</p><p>There's a stand at the edge of the plaza, close to the canal, proclaiming to sell the best mulled wine in the city. Gaara feels drawn to the warm scent of cinnamon and clove in the air, so even though he's not looking for alcohol, he still stops in front of the booth, studying the options listed in tidy, cursive handwriting on a blackboard.</p><p>“Hello, what can I get you on this lovely evening?” A guy with jet-black hair leans over the counter separating Gaara from the inside of the little hut. He smiles at Gaara, teeth so straight and wide he feels the urge to ask for his dentist's name.</p><p>“I don't know yet,” Gaara says, looking back at the board. There's at least eight different alcoholic options, seven more claiming to be non-alcoholic, plus an array of hot chocolates and eggnogs.</p><p>“Take your time, we're in no hurry,” the vendor says. He can't be much older than Gaara but he couldn't look more different. He's wearing a  dark green apron over a thick winter coat and a santa hat almost pushed into his eyes. For some reason, although the outfit looks ridiculous, he pulls it off, thick eyebrows and outdated bowl cut only adding to the look, the lights strung around the window of the stall reflecting in his eyes.</p><p>Gaara is oddly captured.</p><p>“Can you recommend anything?” he asks. “Preferably non-alcoholic.”</p><p>“Of course! Would you like a classic or do you want to go the hot chocolate route?”</p><p>Now, Gaara has never been the adventurous type, he'd rather know about parties planned for his birthday, he likes to look at menus online before going to a new restaurant, will study a map three times before going anywhere. Something about this day, though, about the never-ending arguments from old men twice his age but with half his experience still lingering at the back of his mind, makes him bold.</p><p>Maybe it's also because of the vendor's dimples.</p><p>“Surprise me,” Gaara says.</p><p>Impossibly, the vendor's smile seems to grow. And yes, it's definitely also because of his dimples.</p><p>“You are my favourite customer today!” he exclaims, reaching under the counter and pulling out a ceramic mug.</p><p>Gaara can feel himself smile back, the uptick of his mouth a strange feeling after hours of constant frowning.</p><p>“Stop flirting, Lee,” a voice calls from inside the stall, and that's the first time Gaara notices the young woman leaning against a table beside several huge pots. She's wearing the same green apron tied around her neck but she doesn't even glance up, looking at her phone instead.</p><p>The vendor — Lee — sputters. “Being nice isn't flirting, Tenten! It's good customer service.”</p><p>Tenten throws a quick look in Gaara's direction, smirk on her lips. “If you say so.”</p><p>Lee shakes his head at her and his eyes are apologetic, his smile dimmed slightly. “Don't listen to her, she's just mad because her boyfriend's late.”</p><p>Tenten frowns but doesn't say anything.</p><p>He doesn't really know what to reply to that, so Gaara just smiles, feeling awkward even as his heart stumbles in his chest. He's not sure if it's because of Tenten's comment or Lee's rebuttal.</p><p>“Here.” Lee places a mug filled with a steaming, red liquid in front of Gaara.</p><p>“What is it?”</p><p>“Hot cherry punch,” Lee says. “A personal favourite of mine.”</p><p>The mug is scolding hot to the touch, so Gaara wraps his sleeves around his hands before carefully picking it up. The hot cherry smell drifting up is almost more fitting for summer, fruity and sweet, but there's layers underneath, scents of cinnamon, vanilla and ginger hitting his nose, with the gentle spiciness of clove and star anise carefully mixed in.</p><p>Gaara nips at his drink and immediately burns the tip of his tongue but he almost doesn't care. Even just a small sip leaves him feeling warm, the sweetness of the punch sticking to the top of his mouth, lingering.</p><p>“It's nice,” he nods and his heartbeat picks up when Lee smiles at him again, wide and happy and so genuine Gaara doesn't really know what to do with himself.</p><p>He puts the mug back down on the counter, for the first time noticing the design printed onto the ceramic. It's a cartoonish drawing of a frowning pug sitting atop of a smiling turtle, both animals wearing santa hats just like Lee's. It's the weirdest christmas motif Gaara has ever seen.</p><p>“My boss designed it,” Lee says, noticing Gaara's look. “It's great, isn't it?”</p><p>“It's…,” Gaara starts and doesn't really know how to finish.</p><p>Behind Lee, Tenten snorts.</p><p>“He drew it as a representation for him and his husband,” Lee continues, seemingly either not realizing or not caring about Gaara's speechlessness. His grin is wide again and he clutches at his heart with an apparently completely genuine but dramatic expression of emotion. “It's really romantic!”</p><p>Gaara watches in fascination as Lee animatedly tells the story of his boss falling for and romancing his best friend. He can't quite follow the story but something inside of him, something that has forgotten about meetings and contracts and old men with old opinions, wants Lee to keep talking forever.</p><p>“… and that's why these cups and their yearly changing designs have become a staple of the christmas season in this city. Some people travel here just to get one of these. They're <em>collectibles</em>!”</p><p>His pride is palpable, and Gaara can't help but smile along with it, stroking a thumb over the pug's frowning face.</p><p>“Where do you come from?” Lee asks, still wiping a few tears off his cheeks. “You're not from around here, aren't you?”</p><p>Gaara shakes his head. “I'm here for a meeting.” He doesn't really want to go into it deeper than that, he's enjoying himself too much to think about work.</p><p>“Is this your first time in the city?”</p><p>He nods and watches Lee's excitement bloom in his face. His heartbeat picks up again at the sight.</p><p>“Oh, so you've never tried Sakura's gingerbread before! Or Genma's grilled salmon!” Lee leans far over the partition, his chest almost flat on the counter, trying to point around the stall to some of the others. “Just over there. And you have to try—”</p><p>“Why don't you show him, Lee?” Tenten has finally looked up from her phone and now stands beside him, her hand clapping his back.</p><p>Lee straightens up again, smile rueful, his face flushed. “Sorry, I'm getting too excited again. I'm sure you have better things to do than—”</p><p>“I would like that,” Gaara quickly says before he changes his mind, before it becomes impossible to speak around his heart in his throat.</p><p>For a few seconds, Lee just blinks at him, then his face flushes an even darker red, clashing with the colour of his hat.</p><p>“Tenten, do you mind if I—”</p><p>“Go,” she says and rolls her eyes but she looks impossibly fond, even through her snark. “It's not like we're being run over with customers at the moment.”</p><p>Lee hurriedly hangs his apron on a hook at the wall, then he opens a door at the side of the stall and steps out.</p><p>Gaara doesn't know what he expected but he feels pleasantly surprised with seeing Lee's full form standing in front of him. He's all long legs and strong arms, lanky in a graceful kind of way. He's taller than Gaara, too, and there's something strangely intimate in having to look up at him when standing at his side, seeing his long lashes like shadows around his eyes.</p><p>“Um,” Lee says, and his smile is even more mesmerizing from this perspective, “where do you want to go first?”</p><p>“You're the expert,” Gaara says. It's nice to be led from time to time, he realizes when Lee goes straight to a stall selling grilled salmon. It's nice to not have to make a decision for once, to trust someone else to make it for him.</p><p>The salmon is cooked over an open fire, the air around the stall hot and dry, smelling of fish and burning wood.</p><p>Lee orders two dishes and because Gaara isn't fast enough, he pays for them, too.</p><p>“Ah, don't worry about it,” Lee says, grinning at the vendor. “I'm getting a discount anyway, right, Genma?”</p><p>The vendor snorts. “In your dreams, kid, you already had your lunch at a discount, I need to make a living here.”</p><p>“Oi,” Lee starts to protest but he still pays the full price.</p><p>Gaara looks down into the cherry punch he's still clutching in his hands. The drink's cooled down enough to not burn his mouth anymore but he's still just sipping it, wanting to draw out every moment as long as possible.</p><p>“I'll pay for dessert, then,” he says, when they're standing at a round, wooden bistro table, plates with flame-grilled salmon and bread in front of them.</p><p>Lee blushes and the lights strung around him illuminate his smile. “Deal.”</p><p>The moment Gaara starts to eat, he realizes how hungry he really is. Skipping on lunch hadn't been his best idea, although he won't tell Kankuro or he'll never hear the end of it.</p><p>Lee asks about his job and Gaara tells him about the contract he's trying to secure. It feels boring compared to Lee's stories about drunk christmas carol singers but Lee listens intently, like it is anything but boring, like it's interesting just because it's Gaara telling it.</p><p>He feels seen for the first time in years.</p><p>After the salmon, Lee takes Gaara's hand in his and all but drags him towards a stall selling gingerbread and fruit covered in chocolate. Warmth crawls up Gaara's arm up to his neck, his skin tingling where Lee's touches it.</p><p>The woman behind the counter greets Lee with an easy familiarity and looks at Gaara with amusement, her eyes flickering from him to Lee and back, shining and fond.</p><p>“Who's your date, Lee?” she asks, and Lee opens his mouth, then falters, his eyes growing wide.</p><p>“I never asked for his name!” he exclaims.</p><p>“Lee!” the woman groans.</p><p>“I'm so sorry,” Lee says to Gaara, his mouth suddenly running a mile a minute, “that's inexcusable! I'd totally understand if you'd like to end this right now, really, I'm so sorry, you have really pretty eyes and I was kind of distracted, and—”</p><p>Not even thirty minutes ago, Gaara had felt about ready to throw a table at a bunch of old men sneering at everything he'd said. Now, laughter bubbles up inside of him, a kind of happiness like sparkling water, sharp and enhancing every other feeling. So he lets it out, secure in his knowledge that Lee will be okay with it, will like it.</p><p>Lee has called him <em>pretty</em>.</p><p>“I'm Gaara,” he smiles, open-mouthed and happy. He turns to the woman in the stall, who's watching them with something close to glee in her surprised grin. “I'd like a gingerbread man. And I'm paying for whatever he's having.”</p><p>Lee picks a skewer with an array of fruits covered in three kinds of chocolate. He's not smiling anymore, which is a shame, but he keeps looking at Gaara with wide, dark eyes, like he's seeing him for the first time, like he likes what he's discovered.</p><p>They walk to the small bridge at the edge of the square. It looks new compared to all the bridges Gaara has seen in this city on his way to the hotel, sleek, with a shining steel railing. But someone has wrapped several strings of christmas lights around it, their reflections sparkling like starlight in the water beneath.</p><p>“Gaara,” Lee says.</p><p>Gaara waits but he doesn't say anything else, just his name, as if he's tasting it, holding it in his mouth like something to be treasured. The sound of it makes Gaara's blood run hot, makes him itch to reach out and take Lee's hand in his again, but he has a gingerbread man in one hand now, and he's still holding his now empty mug in the other.</p><p>“I'd like to see you again,” Gaara says, instead, reaching out with words if not with his hands.</p><p>“Yes,” Lee replies immediately. “I'd like that very much.”</p><p>The gingerbread man is decorated with delicate swirls of icing, white patterns covering his brown body like lace. It's delicious but Gaara almost doesn't taste it, too enraptured by Lee at his side. They're pressed close together, now, Lee's warmth seeping through all the layers of clothes separating them.</p><p>They eat in silence, comfortably, and Gaara thinks he could stay here forever, just looking at Lee's profile in the dark of night, lit by christmas lights.</p><p>There's molten chocolate on Lee's cheek, a reminder of the treat Gaara bought for him.</p><p>“You have something—,” Gaara starts, gesturing to his own face.</p><p>“Where?” Lee starts rubbing at the wrong spot. “Did I get it?”</p><p>“Wait,” Gaara says, and he wrestles his mug into his coat pocket, so he has both hands free again. He reaches up, brushing his thumb over the speck of chocolate on Lee's skin.</p><p>Lee's eyes stay on Gaara's face the whole time, surprised and wondering.</p><p>“May I kiss you?” he asks.</p><p>Gaara's heart is somewhere in his mouth, so he just nods. He hasn't kissed anyone in a while and he's pretty sure it's never felt like this before. Like a logical conclusion, the solution to a problem he's been dealing with for a long time.</p><p>Lee leans down and fits his mouth on Gaara's.</p><p>It's not perfect right away, the angle all wrong, and Lee's smiling too widely. But they get there, slotting into each other like puzzle pieces. Lee's lips are soft and warm and the taste of chocolate lingers on his mouth. It's a sweet kiss, almost tame, but Gaara's heart races all the same and he presses closer closer closer until he's wrapped around Lee, until he can push him into the railing.</p><p>“Mhh,” Lee hums when they break apart, blinking down at Gaara.</p><p>Gaara'll have to get back to work soon, he's probably already late, and Tenten's waiting for Lee, too, surely.</p><p>That's okay, though, Gaara thinks as he kisses Lee again, just once, twice, three times more. This is just the beginning.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Yes, the setting for this is Hamburg-inspired, I'm very sorry, my German brain wouldn't shut up.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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